02 / Streams with physical controls

Internet Radio

A tactile streaming radio with station presets, album information, and resilient playback.

DifficultyIntermediate
TimeOne to two weekends
Boards2 recommended

What you’ll build

A bench-ready radio that boots quickly, reconnects cleanly, and feels like a product rather than a demo.

01

Architecture

Three parts.
One working loop.

01

Tune

Preset model resolves a station to a stream URL.

02

Buffer

A network task fills a bounded PSRAM ring buffer.

03

Play

Decoder and I²S output run independently from the UI.

02

Build stack

Hardware

  • Supported display board
  • Speaker and amplifier
  • Rotary encoder or touch controls
  • 5 V supply

Software

  • ESP-IDF
  • LVGL
  • I²S audio
  • HTTP streaming
  • NVS preferences

Capabilities

  • Wi-Fi
  • Audio output
  • Display
  • Input control
  • PSRAM

Constraints

  • Keep audio work off the UI task
  • Recover from stream redirects
  • Persist volume and presets safely

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03 / Build with AI

Give Codex
a better brief.

Choose a target board and copy a prompt grounded in the project’s hardware, constraints, and architecture.

Includes the goal, hardware capabilities, stack, constraints, architecture, and a safe first milestone.